October 24, 2022
For the first decade of his career, trial attorney James Nevin worked at a relentless, breakneck pace, trying asbestos and other tort cases nearly nonstop.“I would finish one trial and the next day start a new one,” he recalls. “I would get a verdict in one trial and the next day I’d be doing motions in limine in the next trial. It was just trial after trial after trial, which was an amazing experience.” The law firm Nevin had joined right out of law school, Brayton Purcell LLP in California, was awash in cases of workers victimized by toxic exposures in […]
October 4, 2022
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will create a new national office of environmental justice to address pollution and climate change in low-income areas and communities of color. EPA administrator, Michael Regan, announced the creation of the office with environmental justice and civil rights leaders in North Carolina. “With the launch of a new national program office, we are embedding environmental justice and civil rights into the DNA of EPA and ensuring that people who’ve struggled to have their concerns addressed see action to solve the problems they’ve been facing for generations.” The new office will combine three smaller offices of environmental justice, civil […]
September 27, 2022
Verismo Therapeutics announced that is has received clearance of its new drug for ovarian cancer, cholangiocarcinoma, and, mesothelioma from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to initiate a first-in-human Phase 1 clinical trial of SynKIR-110. The first human trials are set to start soon. They will “address several areas of high unmet medical need.” The five-year survival rates are 49.7% for ovarian cancer, 30% for cholangiocarcinoma and 10% for mesothelioma. The FDA’s clearance of the new drug represents a new for mesothelioma treatments and innovative research. Verismo plans to begin enrolling patients in the first quarter of 2023 at […]
September 20, 2022
Historically there have been only two ways to diagnose mesothelioma: histology and cytology. Histology tests tissue and cytology tests fluid. Both tests are often performed to determine if a patient has mesothelioma. Often, the patient is in an advanced stage of mesothelioma at the time the tests are performed. However, there is some hope for earlier diagnosis. A new study has discovered that a blood test called Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) can discover mesothelioma earlier than traditional methods. FTIR is used to analyze the proteins left in the patient’s blood after blood cells and clotting proteins are removed. Researchers […]
September 1, 2022
A hairdresser, Pauline Kirby, who cleaned hair dryers that contained asbestos in the 1970s died from mesothelioma. Kirby’s diagnosis came in 2016, decades after her exposure to the carcinogenic material. Her husband, an electrician, said in her hearing that he didn’t realize that they had been exposed to asbestos while cleaning and repairing the hair dryers. About 90% of hair dryers manufactured through the late 1970s contained asbestos. Many hairdressers were exposed to the material consistently in the course of their employment. Her family also stated Covid lockdowns had ill effect on her health as she could not participate in […]
August 16, 2022
For several years, Johnson & Johnson (J&J) has faced litigation for their talcum powder products that resulted in ovarian cancer and mesothelioma in many consumers. J&J is pulling their baby powder products that contain talc worldwide next year after pulling the products from U.S. and Canada markets amid thousands of lawsuits. In 2020, J&J recalled 33,000 bottles of baby powder after FDA regulators found asbestos in a bottle purchased online. Cornstarch will most likely replace talc in their products according to J&J. Late 2021, J&J “said a separate subsidiary it created to manage talc litigation claims had filed for Chapter […]
July 27, 2022
July 27, 2022
Whittaker, Clark & Daniels, Inc. is being sued by a man who was exposed to asbestos through several products they supplied talc for. He was diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2017 after being exposed to asbestos-laced talc in an Old Spice product that Whittaker, Clark & Daniels, Inc. supplied the talc for. The plaintiff said that the company’s officers and directors knew of the dangerous effects relating to talc but deliberately failed to prevent consumers’ exposure to asbestos. The company’s past vice president testified at trial about the company’s business and its distribution of talc. It was discovered that high-level employees […]
July 8, 2022
The U.S. Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina was established in 1942. In 1982, the Marine Corps discovered specific volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the drinking water provided by two of the eight water treatment plants on base. Before 1986, water from the Tarawa Terrace and Hadnot Point treatment plants contaminated the water at Camp Lejeune with trichloroethylene (TCE), perchloroethylene (PCE), vinyl chloride, benzene, and trans-1,2-dichloroethylene (DCE). The levels of TCE was 280 times higher than the U.S. maximum contaminant level (MCL). Health effects for TCE Kidney cancer Non-Hodgkin lymphoma Cardiac defects Leukemia Liver cancer Multiple myeloma End-stage […]